Matthew, Matthew David!
by theMatthewReview
Summary: The gentle heir to a Yorkshire estate is no mere man after all. David Haller became Matthew Crawley in order to put things in motion that would save Europe many years later. But the mission must end, no matter how happy a man he has become...
1. Chapter 1

David Haller's philanthropic mission to Yorkshire is about to end, and ripples will be made upon the waters of fate that can't be taken back. He's being called back, and this means a return to insecurity...

Matthew - by far the most kind and benevolent of David's personalities - will soon be a father. His nightmares of the Great War have faded in the peace of his wife's arms. But other nightmares are replacing them...


	2. Chapter 2

Charles Xavier and David Haller enjoyed a fine, halcyon period together in the astral plane, during which they often thought of little ripples in time they could create in order to improve the lot of a few people at a time - and that of _homo superioru_ s as well. Old newspapers often provided them fodder for these tiny experiments in philanthropy, and on one occasion, they came across an article in The Yorkshire Intelligencer.

German Bombing Raid Flattens Yorkshire Villages

 _'Ugly Target Practice', Dozens of Lives Lost_

 **Possible Unexploded Bombs on Pastureland**

 _ **'**_ _Who would have ever thought the Germans would try that here?' said Daisy Mason, a prominent resident of Downton Village who is now in her fifties. 'The Cattle Market is a shambles, the new Town Hall lost its clock tower, and they used the old mansion where I used to work for some ugly target practice. Luckily that's been empty for years now...'_

 _'... Some three dozen people at the Jeffords Creamery in Upper G- lost their lives thanks to a direct hit that destroyed the milk bottling area. The carnage included a father, his two sons and a brother in law...'_

 _'... Mrs. Catherine Meadows came home from a trip to York Minster to find her cottage flattened by the bombing. Her eldest son, Kenneth, was the only member of her family to survive.'_

'Yes, Father, that is a great anomaly, isn't it. Innocent people in a rural setting, cruelly yanked into this second war. What if we did something to keep that from happening?' asked David, sipping his tea.

Xavier shook his head in agreement. 'We'd have to go back further in time, to the first war. Have one person survive the horrors of the battlefield and become a father to at least one son who became a fighter pilot in the second war.'

David looked at his father quizzically, his intense, big blue eyes like shimmering pools.

'Wouldn't he have to be upper class in order to have his son have enough advantages to be a good flying ace?'

'Oh, that... or at least well educated, upper middle class, maybe,' Charles replied, immediately typing his spoken specifications into a database.

The machine hummed and whirred aloud for only a few seconds before pulling up some data that fit his inquiry about any 'upper middle class officer, casualty, Yorkshire estate.'

 **Young Officer in Manchester Regiment Killed at Battle of Arras**

 _Well Liked Solicitor in Ripon, Was Heir to Estate_

Earl of Grantham Devastated, Entire Family Mourns Loss of Captain Crawley

 _'Dispatches dated April 22, 1917, have reported the death of Captain Matthew Crawley, late the heir of the Grantham Estate near the village of Downton. Mr. Crawley served his King and country in the Duke of Manchester's Own Regiment, as he and his now-bereaved mother originally resided in Chorlton, Greater Manchester. As a bachelor and an only son, he leaves behind his mother, Isobel, a fiancee, Miss Lavinia Swire of London, as well as his third and fourth cousins once removed, Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, his wife, Cora, Countess of Grantham, and three daughters, the Ladies Mary, Edith, and Sybil Crawley._

 _Captain Crawley, a reputable solicitor in the town of Ripon, was also the last heir to the Grantham Estate, and there are now no more males in the Crawley line...'_

'Hmmm, Father. Shall I go back to this Battle of Arras and see what happened to this Matthew Crawley? Was he just wounded, or blown to bits? Would there be a mortal coil to inhabit?' asked David then.

'Oh, I think you should, son,' Charles replied. 'There is a photograph of Matthew Crawley on the next page, and he even looks a little bit like you, at that.'

Big, deep eyes dominated the black and white image of a young man with just a hint of a kind, just barely off-center smile. It was almost uncanny how he resembled David. Now, David would not absorb Matthew's spirit as he died; his mind, now remarkably calm and controlled thanks to his father, would meld with that of the dying hero, and his life quicken Matthew's mortal coil, though it couldn't last for ever.


End file.
